Bangalore: Stress often spills over from workplace to home and even during the commute to and from work. Nerves are frayed and tempers flare; a bit too often for one's own health and well-being.

"Most workplace-related stress can be reduced if not avoided altogether by avoiding those whom you can call time wasters," says M.K. Rao, former Human Resources Head at a major corporate and now a recruiter-consultant.

The problem is that those who waste your time are usually just trying to be friendly or trying to overcome their own boredom at work, he adds.

If you are not high enough up the corporate ladder and have no secretary to screen your calls, anything like 80 minutes of your 12-hour working day can be spent answering phone calls and making your own calls.

Psychotherapist Sunanda Murthy says, "It is often difficult to cut off a long and frequently useless phone conversation... you have to practise doing just that without hurting the other person's feelings."

You can always say you have another incoming call, which is long distance or overseas or politely say you have work to catch up on, she says.

According to Mr. Rao, many wasteful phone calls are, plainly put, related to office gossip and are best avoided and cut short right at the beginning.

"Those who gossip about others may gossip about you and anything you say in an unguarded moment can be repeated, suitably embellished, to others in the office and your image can be damaged forever," he says.

Dr. Murthy says that the office watering hole, be it the staff canteen, the coffee machine or the water cooler, can become a place where a significant amount of your working time can be wasted by others.

"Most people love company and love to talk. Women may discuss the latest mall sale and men the cricket score but the end result is the same: you have wasted 10 minutes," she says.

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